18The sons are gathering wood, the fathers are kindling fire, and the women are kneading dough to make starshaped cakes for the queen of the heaven and to pour libations to other gods, in order to provoke Me.

20Therefore, so says the Lord God: Behold, My wrath and My fury reaches this place, upon man and upon beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the produce of the soil, and it shall burn and not be quenched.

your burnt offerings: that you offer up completelyit would be better for you to add them to your peace-offerings and sacrifice them as peace-offerings and eat the flesh, for they are not acceptable before Me. Why, then, should you lose them?

22For neither did I speak with your forefathers nor did I command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning a burnt offering or a sacrifice.

So tear off your diadem: Heb. נזרך גזי, tear out your hair. Comp. (Num. 11:31) “And He caused quails to fly (ויגז) ” ; also (Job 1:20), “And he shaved (ויגז) his head.” Another explanation is that נזרך means ‘your diadem,’ an expression of greatness, and so did Jonathan render: רברביך your great ones, and so did Menahem classify it (p. 83).

and abandoned: Heb. ויטש.

30For the sons of Judah have done what is evil in My eyes, says the Lord; they placed their abominations in the house upon which My name is called, to pollute it.

the high places of Topheth: That is Molech, which was of copper, and they would heat it up from underneath it with its hands spread out and heated. And they would place the child on his hands, and he would be burnt and moan, and the priests would beat drums so that the father should not hear his son’s voice and take pity. It is called Topheth because of the drum (תּוף), Hinnom because of the child’s moaning (נהמת).

Hinnom: Because of the child’s moaning.

which I did not ordain: with commandments that they offer up their children as sacrifices, and I did not speak to any of the prophets, and when I did speak to Abraham to slaughter his son, it did not enter My mind that he slaughter, but only to make his righteousness known.

32Therefore, behold days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, and they shall bury in Topheth for lack of room.

and no one will frighten them: i.e., no one will frighten the fowl from the carcasses.

34And I will stop from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall be desolate.